Canadian National Railway expects intermodal to stay strong as shippers frustrated with U.S. West Coast port congestion push U.S-bound loads through Canadian ports and onto its network running through Chicago and down to New Orleans.

The Port of Prince Rupert says it can handle more diversions of U.S-bound cargo after import traffic jumped 72 percent last month, a likely result of shippers rerouting cargo away from congested U.S. terminals.

SEATTLE — Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., Monday pledged to continue working to ensure the ports of Seattle and Tacoma get a fairer share of U.S. federal funding and don't lose U.S.-bound cargo to Canadian ports by pushing for an alternative funding source to the Harbor Maintenance Tax.

Despite nine months that included historic congestion, rumblings of diversions and the lack of a West Coast port contract, the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach nabbed a bigger piece of the West Coast volume pie through the first three quarters of 2014.

Eleven container ships were anchored off the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach on Sunday, the most waiting at one time in San Pedro Bay in two years, as gridlock persisted at the largest container gateway in the Americas.

The massive congestion affecting the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach is creating a fresh wave of diversions to other ports as shippers flee the worst congestion that the largest port complex in the Americas has seen in at least a decade.

Shippers are getting U.S.-bound cargo more easily through the ports of Vancouver and Prince Rupert as the surge in imports avoiding the U.S. West Coast due to labor talks subsides with the conclusion of the ocean peak season.